SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 14, 2000 – It’s good to be loved by teens. Profitable, too. As MTV’s Carson Daly is learning.
The video-introducer-guy from the music network’s signature “Total Request Live” broadcast has inked a deal to move up to the network big leagues. In something of a twist, the development pact is with CBS – MTV’s demographic polar opposite.
So is CBS going to try to convert the 26-year-old Daly to its “Diagnosis Murder” ways? Don’t know yet, although the net has dispatched him in the past to host those ultimate old-school entertainment staples: beauty pageants. Whatever the case, Daly is covering his bases. The newly formed Carson Daly Productions will churn out stuff for both CBS and MTV.
Speaking of being loved by teens, Daly — formerly best known as Jennifer Love Hewitt’s boyfriend turned ex-boyfriend — has been linked of late to 19-year-old Grammy-winning popster Christina Aguilera. The two insist, however, they’re on a strictly veejay/video-artist relationship.
DRAMA QUEENS (AND KINGS): ABC’s “General Hospital” was the big winner at the 16th Annual Soap Opera Digest Awards, Friday in Hollywood. The hour-long serial about lovers and ex-lovers and people-you-thought-were-dead-but-really-aren’t took five categories, including favorite show. “Hospital’s” Anthony Geary, who if you’ll recall the last time you tuned in during junior high was playing that curly-haired guy named Luke, was named outstanding lead actor for still playing that guy named Luke. (Although, in fairness, at least the curly hair is gone.) Kim Zimmer of CBS’ “Guiding Light,” the hour-long serial about lovers and ex-lovers and people-you-thought-were-dead-but-really-aren’t, was tapped outstanding lead actress.
